


Autumn Thaw

by Brumeier



Series: Elementary, My Dear Sheppard [3]
Category: Sherlock (TV), Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Autumn, Homelessness, M/M, Partnership, Pre-Slash, Prompt Fill, Self-Discovery
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-06
Updated: 2019-10-06
Packaged: 2020-11-25 15:07:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 500
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20914106
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Brumeier/pseuds/Brumeier
Summary: LJ Comment Fic for 100 Words on Autumn prompt:BBC Sherlock, any (+/ any), Falling Leaves (Billy Talent)In which John reflects on the changes in his life.





	Autumn Thaw

London was no different than any other large city John had been to. There were tourists and honking cabs and people rushing to their jobs or their families or their clandestine activities. And there were homeless people as well, people fallen on hard times sleeping on dirty sleeping bags and begging for money.

John might’ve been one of them, if his luck had run out.

He sipped his coffee – no pumpkin spice, thank you – and watched a particularly ragged man across the street panhandling. It was getting too cold to sit outside, but John just zipped up his leather jacket and endured the brisk wind that was blowing leaves around the street and up the sidewalk.

The homeless man was wearing several layers, none of which looked particularly insulating. He didn’t look outwardly cold, but maybe he was just hiding it well. John knew how easy it could be to hide the really important things from other people, a defense mechanism he’d learned way back in high school. He’d had to be a different person for his father, a different person for his friends.

It wasn’t easy rewriting the programming after so long, but John was taking steps.

“Why are you sitting out in the cold?” 

John looked up at Sherlock, who was standing over him like some sort of dark sentinel, his striped scarf flapping in the wind.

“It’s not that cold.”

“The chafing and discoloration on your exposed skin say otherwise.” 

“I’m warm where it counts,” John replied, and took a large swallow of his coffee.

The air might be full of October crispness, but inside John a spring thaw was underway. Feelings that had long ago been put in cold storage were bubbling back to the surface, and John was definitely having feelings about the way the chill wind was putting a bit of a blush on Sherlock’s pale cheekbones.

“I received a tip on our suspected blackmailer,” Sherlock said. He was like a tensed spring, ready to move at the first possible second. “If you’re through.”

John wasn’t, but the coffee was portable. “Just give me a second,” he replied.

He darted across the street, narrowly avoiding a bus, and pulled a twenty pound note from his pocket, money he’d earned tutoring local kids in math at 221B in between helping Sherlock on cases. He pressed it into the homeless man’s hand.

“Very altruistic,” Sherlock remarked when John returned.

John just shrugged. “Where are we going?”

“My informant isn’t far from here.”

But instead of moving, Sherlock continued to stand there and study John. They were the same height, but Sherlock always seemed to be looking down at him. Whatever he could read on John’s face – John suspected it was more than he’d be comfortable with – just made Sherlock nod. Then he turned, long wool coat swirling dramatically as several brown leaves went skittering down the sidewalk.

John thought maybe it was time to see if Sherlock might be interested in a different sort of partnership.

**Author's Note:**

> **AN:** I don't know why this pairing has become a thing for me, but I'm really enjoying it! Sherlock has a lot in common with Rodney McKay, and John has proven capable of wrangling that particular type. I don't know, man. I just like it! LOL!


End file.
